Getting religion

Idolatrous invocations

Dec 14, 2004

Democrats have to get religion. So argue the political pundits and analysts in the wake of the Democrats’ defeat in November. As Al From, founder of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, observed: “You can’t have everybody who goes to church vote Republican, you just can’t.”

With the reelection of a president, gains in both houses of Congress, and plans under way to reshape the Supreme Court, Republicans seem poised to exercise political dominance. George Bush, with the help of adviser Karl Rove, drew to the polls conservative Christians who wanted to show their opposition to gay marriage and abortion rights. The 4 million evangelicals who Rove says stayed home in 2000 came out in 2004 and brought their friends.